100 Days, 100 Ties

Happy TieDay, everyone. Weather-wise, it looked a little shady to start, but then a ray of sunshine appeared and made it a great day. Amazing how one little thing at the beginning of the day just sets the tone…

The final RTW tie

The Tie du Jour fits perfectly on a casual Friday: a skinny, red, vintage number from Arrow. The pattern on the stripe and the blackish-reddish mix (where it looks black in the pic) can only be accomplished via the magic of synthetic fabric. Anyway, I wasn’t sure that this was the same Arrow that puts out men’s dress shirts, but the label also says Cluett, Peabody & Co, Inc., which can trace its operations back over 150 years. This tie is NOT that old; it’s 50 years old, tops…

Cultural Reference Corner: Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A city very close to my heart, my mom grew up about 40 miles away; my father was raised in New Orleans, about two hour’s drive, unless you’re Cajun, in which it would take merely an hour. Baton Rouge is translated to “Red Stick.” French explorer d’Iberville named it after finding that the Native Americans had marked their hunting territory with a large, red cypress stick.

Peace, ties and sunglasses!

We have a couple of Guys With Ties to write about here. The first is Chuck Johnson, who found it necessary to honk at me, with his entire family in tow, and plow across a lane of traffic to say hi. Come to think of it, that’s my kind of friend. Chuck and I were fraternity brothers at U. of Illinois, and he recently moved to Evanston, which is nice. He brought his family, which is nicer.

Next is my boss, Jonathan Perman. That link goes to his bio on the Chamber website, where he is not sporting a tie, ironically. I do like the fact that he is celebrating Red Tie Week, though. And just for shitsengiggles, here’s my profile…I’M sporting a tie. Yes, it’s my same picture as this blog one.

Well, it’s always sad to see a good thing end…but end it must. Thus, I bid adieu to the 1st Fifth Annual Red Tie Week.

Despite my advancing age, I was able to remember Red Tie Week this morning when picking out my tie to wear. Kinda starts the day off well to pass such a test. You laugh, but in my first work day here at the flat (‘apartment’ has too many syllables), I forgot to shave; on the 2nd day, I went out the door deodorantless. I keep an extra at the office, thanks be to Mennen. Hmm, let’s file this paragraph under Too-Much-Information…

Doctor, I see spots...

All hygienic procedures aside, it’s Day 2 of Red Tie Week. The excitement is palpable, and today’s Tie du Jour from Bullock & Jones (whoa…the Geneva Stripe Shirt on the B&J home page is KILLER. whoa again…it’s $150) is a worthy addition to the week’s offerings. I found it at the Salvation Army store at Kedzie & Chicago Avenue, right here in Evanston, and probably paid $2-3, a steal. The shirt is a vintage Marshall Field’s with French cuffs…pretty fun to pair up with this tie and a red pocket scarf that I have…

I have another addition to Guys With Ties…Mark Daniels, a fellow Dad at Lincoln School, is lookin’ straight into the sun. Thank goodness he’s borrowed my sunglasses…his striped tie and shirt combo look pretty good with his unnecessary raincoat. Perhaps he’s celebrating Charcoal Tie Week at his house.

Mark ponders joining Red Tie Week festivities

Day 2’s Cultural Reference Corner centers on Red Buttons, a Borscht-Belt comedian who seems to have been a regular on the Friar’s Club Roasts during their heyday. This video of his roast of Frank Sinatra is worth a few laughs…plus the cavalcade of 60s/70s comedy stars is pretty fun to see.

I’d like to mention again how amusing it has been to keep this going. A lot of you have told me that you’re enjoying it, in person and in comments. Y’all are a main reason that I know I’ll keep going. Pretty sure this one is Tie No. 21. Pretty sure that No. 22 will be red, too…if I remember Red Tie Week, that is.

Thanks for reading…Brooke